My Aiden

Dec. 13, 2012 - Happy Birthday to our Aiden Christopher! I was looking back at old pictures of Aiden trying to find this one. It cracks me up and I think it may be one of my all time favorites!

I came across quite a few pictures of Aiden over the years and I was brought back to the memory of his birth. Aiden was only 24 hours old when the doctor stormed into my hospital room early in the morning to tell me he was not doing well and he needed to be airlifted to Sioux Falls immediately. I was in a panic. What just happened!? I called Jason who was at home with our 18 month old and made my way down the hall to the hospital nursery to find out what was going on. All I could see were a lot of nurses and our doctor hovering over this little baby who was struggling to breath. The doctor asked the staff to close the door to the nursery when she saw that I was outside watching. (Uh, yes, we now go to a different doctor. I was not impressed.) A kind nurse's aid asked me if she could take me back to my room and help me call anyone and get my things together. Next thing I know the flight team had come in with Aiden in a huge incubator for me to say goodbye before they took him.

 Jason came to the hospital and after I was discharged we drove to Sioux Falls to be with our son. When we arrived we talked to the pediatric intensive care doctor who informed us that Aiden had a collapsed lung and gave us some statistic about this only happening in 2% of full term births. There was no explanation for his lung collapse and to this day we do not know why. So Aiden spent about 10 days in the NICU in Sioux Falls.

After only 2 days of being in the NICU, Aiden was breathing on his own and his chest tube was taken out. He was monitored closely for a few days and then he had to finish out his antibiotics before we could go home. The NICU nurses said he was probably the biggest baby in the NICU. They had to find bigger diapers for him because they were so used to preemies. :) He is still a big boy!

Finally holding my baby boy!

 We came home Dec. 23rd. Aiden seemed to have a lot of breathing problems during his first year. He was in the hospital again when he was about 5 months old for pneumonia, but after seeing a specialist and doing multiple breathing treatments and as he grew, he had less problems. Today he does not seem to have any residual effects from his traumatic first few days except a cool scar on the side of his chest. His dad tells him "chicks dig scars!" Ha!

Home at last

I think back also to the fact that I was not even very excited when I found out I was pregnant with him. Shame on me, I know! I was more in a panic than excited. Ian was only 10 months old when I found out I was pregnant and thoughts raced through my head like, how am I going to carry two infants at the same time. We need a double stroller. We need another crib. How am I going to do all this????? These were my panicky thoughts right after taking a pregnancy test and I verbalized my panic to Jason. He calmly reminded me that this baby was not going to be coming for another 7-8 months. Ian will grow in that time and we have time to get ready. It will be o.k.! He is so good for me. Now, I cannot imagine life without Aiden. He is a good buddy to all his siblings. He is my sensitive one. He likes hugs and cuddling. He loves little children. He has a God given talent of memorization and reading and is able to retain it all. He will give us random facts about something because he read it somewhere and remembered it. He needs to be pushed to work at certain things if it is challenging for him. He also thinks.....deeply. Some of the questions he asks about spiritual issues blow me away. I do not always have an answer for him and he makes me think beyond just "because the bible tells me so." Oh and he has inherited the Herman gene in me.....he is LOUD! He does not do too many things quietly. Sorry buddy, but you got it honestly from your mother.

I am going to close this post with my favorite story about Aiden from this year. This makes my heart happy as a mom because there are days with Aiden that I don't know how this boy is going to turn out. Then I think back on this story and I am filled with tears of joy because there is hope.

 Our kids get Focus on the Family's Clubhouse and Clubhouse Jr. magazines. We started their subscription when we left for China in hopes that it would give them something to look forward to in the mail while we were gone. In the December Clubhouse Jr. magazine there was a story about a little girl named Lily who is writing out her Christmas letter to God. She writes to God to tell him what she wants for Christmas and the reasons why. Lily's dad calls everyone together for family devotions and he says they are going to talk about gifts. Lily's parents tell everyone that they have decided to take a family vacation to Jamaica for Christmas.....to an orphanage where David, the boy on their refrigerator, lived. Lily was upset. She didn't want to go there. She wanted a soccer ball for Christmas and to go to Grandpa and Grandma's house. Lily's parents explained that they wanted to do more this Christmas than just send money and that no one was going to be getting gifts this year. Lily was not happy. They went to the orphanage and met David. Lily and David played soccer together. Then Lily's dad handed Lily a card to give to David. Lily thought that was a pretty dumb gift until David opened it and read:

"Dear David, Would you like to come live with us? We would love to be your new parents! And you could play a lot of soccer with Lily.
Merry Christmas,
Mr. and Mrs. Solm"

 Lily was thrilled and said, "this is the biggest and best Christmas ever!"

After Aiden read this story, he told me and Jason to read it. Then he said, I think we should do that. :) :) :)  This makes my heart swell.

Aiden is such a blessing in our lives. We cannot imagine our lives without him. Happy 8th Birthday to our Aiden!

 

Catch Up

As I sit here finally catching up on this blog, the wind is blowing and snow is falling. When those two combine it results in cancellations. Tonight I should be watching our four children in their Christmas program, but that will have to wait until next Sunday. :) So, with a snowstorm blowing outside, I have time to catch up.
Life has been busy crazy ever since Thanksgiving hit. The day after Thanksgiving we put our Christmas trees up and decorated them. While decorating the "kids" tree, I realized there will be even more "firsts" for Lucy. I am guessing this is the first time she has seen a Christmas tree. While decorating the tree Lucy jumped right in and helped put ornaments on each branch, following the other three's lead. At first she wasn't so sure what all the excitement was about. I still do not think she understands all this yet.

The star for the "kids tree"

Other firsts she may be experiencing now is snow. I am pretty sure she has seen snow. Today in Jiaozuo it is 23 degrees and hazy, so their weather is very similar to ours. We are just not sure she has actually played in the snow. Unfortunately, she has not been out to play in it yet. Nap times and shorter daylight makes it hard to get out, but we will see. When she is out in the cold she seems to freeze up and doesn't want to walk or do much of anything. Living in Minnesota, she is going to have to get used to that. Sorry sweetie!

 Jason has been working long days at MinnTex (hence, the earlier comment about life being crazy since after Thanksgiving). So, the kids were pretty excited when he came home Saturday evening and wrestled with them. We all just hang on until busy season is over and Daddy is home again. Lucy misses her daddy while he is gone. It has been difficult for me to hear her yell "aaadddyyy" when I have to discipline her. Yep, she wants her daddy when mommy is teaching her what she cannot do.

We had two speech teachers come to the house last Monday for evaluations on Lucy's speech. They are supposed to come back for day 2 of speech evaluations tomorrow (Monday), but with this weather, I don't know if they will make it. They are evaluating what exactly is the problem with her speech so they know how to work with her. They can continue to come to our house for 6 more months, until she is 3, and then revaluate her at that time. At that time she would need to go to preschool and they will work with her there. We will see what happens in the next 6 months. It has been over 6 months now that we have been home with Lucy.  Jason and I will talk about how at times we cannot believe she is really home with us. We have seen SO MUCH growth and healing from her the past 6 months. I hear comments from people frequently about how much Lucy smiles and looks happy with us. That is so encouraging to hear. We see it too. I would say we all have grown and healed in the past 6 months.